1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to open architecture software-defined systems, and particularly to the identification of system hardware resources and resource interdependencies in a manner that enables the resources to be efficiently allocated to system applications.
2. Description of Related Art
A conventional software-defined communications system includes several reconfigurable groups of hardware components, often referred to as hardware resources, that are utilized in various combinations to create system hardware topologies. These hardware resources can be allocated to specific system applications in a manner that minimizes unnecessary hardware resource redundancy.
While each of the hardware resources in the software-defined communications system is ideally completely independent from all other hardware resources, most hardware resources typically have some degree of what is referred to as resource channelization, which is the hardwired connectivity between system resources that constrains resource allocation during the concurrent operation of multiple system applications. For example, a fully channelized system may contain hardware components that are divided into separate channels of duplicate hardware resources, with each channel being capable of supporting one application at a time. However, resources from one channel cannot be utilized with resources from another separate channel due to hardwired dependencies within respective resources. Further, a partially channelized system enables a larger degree of flexibility with respect to resource allocation compared to a fully channelized system.
Existing resource allocation techniques are typically capable of assigning hardware resources to fixed channels, even though the resources within these fixed channels are capable of being partitioned into smaller channel subsets. Conventional techniques use such a fixed channel approach due to the complexity involved in describing and honoring allowable combinations of resources. While such techniques have produced acceptable results in the past, a more efficient technique for allocating hardware resources is needed for the increasingly complex software-defined multi-channel reconfigurable radios that are now commercially available.